PA Party

This article was contributed by Mayuri Kirloskar. Mayuri heads the Pune operations of Blue Lotus.

A night to remember

On a crisp Friday evening, the entire Mumbai team of Blue Lotus (and their Pune counterparts) trooped towards Hotel Apollo where the PA results were to be announced. Although everything appeared bright and merry on the surface, I can assure you that there were many experiencing the ’butterflies in the stomach’ syndrome.

Some walked in with very high expectations. For others, it was déjà vu time. As for the new-kids-on-the-block, it was obviously a ‘Night to Remember’ – their first-ever performance appraisal. It’ll suffice to say that the atmosphere was heady with anticipation, mixed with equal parts anxiety.

Pooja got the event underway with a short, spirited speech, her characteristic tongue-in-cheek humour very much in evidence. Then it was Darshan’s turn to brief us on the current financial status of BLC. Some worried glances were exchanged after Darshan was done with his speech. But Soumitro and Mouli took over from there and injected a much-needed dose of optimism into the evening’s proceedings. As Soumitro very rightly pointed out, "there’s no point dwelling in the past as you can’t change it; what you can control is tomorrow. So let’s get our acts together and prepare for what’s to come". After that, a few of the oldest and a couple of the newest members of Blue Lotus spoke a few lines each. It was all very earnest and heartfelt.

Once the announcements had been made, it was time to hit the dance floor. One look at the couples jiving and it quickly became evident that all the hard work put in during the Salsa sessions had paid off big time. Even those not learning the Salsa did their thing in great style.

A few pegs down and everyone forgot about numbers, figures and results. It was time to be merry. A fitting finale to the evening was when the next day was declared a holiday.